World Inspired Landscapes: Micronesia version ii

The first version of the World Inspired Landscapes: Micronesia depicted a number of glass marbles floating around in an abstract sea. It was an ambitious composition but as I thought about the concept, the coolest part was that the interior decoration of the glass marbles looked an awful lot like a tropical islands. With so many marbles in the painting it was hard to key in on that idea. The marbles also had an amazing light and shadow effect under the lamp that was hard to depict on a small scale. I knew that the painting would need a black background in order to create the illusion of an illuminated glass marble. In this version I depicted one marble with a tropical island-inspired decoration inside of the glass sphere, illuminated from the top and casting an interesting shadow. The shadow had a donut appearance since some light was passing straight through and carrying some of the colour with it. To maintain a soft, matte effect, I did the painting all in one go, keeping the paint damp but not overly wet or dry. So far as the concept, this composition carries a sense of isolation and vastness even though it is a tiny marble on a dark grey background. I feel the same sense of isolation as was created in the Marshall Islands painting, which is in the same desolate geographical location.
 

World Inspired Landscapes: Micronesia ii, watercolour 6 x 6" cold press, April 2024